|aJames Tiptree, Jr. :|bthe double life of Alice B. Sheldon /|cJulie Phillips.
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|aThe double life of Alice B. Sheldon
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|a1st Picador ed.
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|aNew York :|bPicador,|c2007.
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|ax, 545 p., [16] p. of plates :|bill., ports. ;|c22 cm.
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|aOriginally published: New York : St. Martin's Press, 2006.
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|aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 521-523) and index.
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|aJames Tiptree, Jr., burst onto the science fiction scene in the late 1960s with a string of hard-edged, provocative stories. He was hailed as a brilliant writer with a deep sympathy for his female characters. He carried on intimate correspondences with other writers, none of whom knew his true identity. He was so reclusive that he was widely believed to be a top-secret government agent. Then the cover was blown--on a sixty-one-year-old woman named Alice Bradley Sheldon. A Chicago native, Alice traveled the globe with her mother, then eloped with a poet at nineteen. She became an artist, a newspaper critic, an army officer, a CIA analyst, and an expert on the psychology of perception. Beautiful, theatrical, and sophisticated, she developed close friendships with people she never met. Devoted to her second husband, she struggled with her feelings for women. An outspoken feminist, she took a male name as a joke, and found the voice to write her stories--only when she became someone else could she tell the truth about herself.--From publisher description.
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|aWinner of Locus Awards (Nonfiction), 2007
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|aWinner of Washington State Book Award (History/Biography), 2007
James Tiptree, Jr., burst onto the science fiction scene in the late 1960s with a series of hard-edged, provocative stories. He redefined the genre with such classics as Houston, Houston, Do You Read? and The Women Men Don't See. For nearly ten years he wrote and carried on intimate correspondences with other writers--Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, and Ursula K. Le Guin, though none of them knew his true identity. Then the cover was blown on his alter ego: "he" was actually a sixty-one-year-old woman named Alice Bradley Sheldon. A feminist, she took a male name as a joke--and found the voice to write her stories.Based on extensive research, exclusive interviews, and full access to Alice Sheldon's papers, Julie Phillips has penned a biography of a profoundly original writer and a woman far ahead of her time.
Julie Phillips is a journalist who has written on film, books, feminism, and cultural politics. James Tiptree, Jr. is her first book. She lives in Amsterdam, Holland.